Information therapy is a simple solution to facilitate patients' access to health information, which can contribute to patient self-care. Considering the importance  of treatment and health information, and  engagement of people with different specialties in the process of information therapy, this research was conducted    to identify the opportunities and challenges of establishing an information therapy center.

The present study was an applied-qualitative research. The study  population included patients,  medical librarians, physicians, health care providers, and psychologists with experience in information therapy and health information prescription. A purposive sampling  along with  snowball sampling were perfomed. The data were collected via  a semi-structured interview.  The data were then analyzed by using MAQDA20 software.

By analysing the interviews, we were able to identify  a main class entitled "Benefits of Information Therapy" including 4 subclasses of “patients and families”, “medical staff”, “health system”, and “medical librarians” under the main themes of "Opportunities". Under the and"Challenges", four subclasses of “barriers to information therapy”, “financial issues”, “implementation”, and “execution” were also identified.

Despite the benefits of establishing an information therapy center for patients and their families, treatment staff, psychologists and medical librarians, there are some obstacles posed by these groups and the healthcare system, which require further consideration. Careful investigation and finding solutions to  remove the obstacles as well as  creating  an approprite platform to  adopt the center in the society and health sector. In order to establish this center, it is necessary to consider inter-group and inter-organizational cooperation with  detailed planning, as well.

Physical or psychological dependence on something or someone unconsciously creates a kind of relationship with the desire for stability and the fear of its loss causes annoyance and stress. Obviously, the daily and constant use of mobile phones also causes this type of dependence and the anxiety of separation from the mobile phone can make a person face psychological insecurity and even create the basis for the occurrence of diseases such as pessimism. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of information therapy on nomophobia (non-mobile phobia) of post-graduate students of Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran.

This research is semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research includes graduate students of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in the academic year of 2022-23. The selection of the subjects in this research in the first stage was purposefully selected based on the objectives of the research as available, but they randomly replaced in 3 experimental and control groups. To select the sample, all graduate students who were physically present in the study halls of the central library of the university for a long time (more than 20 hours per week) and used the library space were examined from the existing list and a questionnaire with questions with a short answer, questions related to the amount of mobile phone use and their feelings when the phone is turned off or the Internet is not available, etc. were distributed among them and accordingly, 40 of the students dependent on mobile phones with demographic characteristics Those who received the highest marks based on this self-report questionnaire were selected as the subjects of this research. The sample of this study was made up of 40 students dependent on mobile phones, 10 people in 4 experimental groups (receiving information by watching a video), the experimental group receiving information by reading the texts, 10 people were divided into the experimental group (receiving information about participation in counseling sessions) and the control group of 10 people. Information therapy training was provided to the students of the experimental groups during six two-hour sessions, while the control group did not receive any special training. All three levels of information therapy (video, text and counseling) included 12 different educational discussion topics, two of which were used in each session and the educational environment (information therapy) was the same for all groups. All 4 groups were measured in the pre-test and post-test with Yildirim & Correia’s nomophobia questionnaires (2015).

According to the findings of this research, it should be said that the difference between the group of watching the movie and the group of reading the texts, counseling sessions with the control group was 0.30, 1.90 and 1.50, respectively. The difference between the text study group and the counseling and control groups was 2.20 and 1.80, respectively. The difference between the group of counseling sessions and the control group was 0.40. Based on the results of one-way analysis of variance, there was no significant difference between the 4 studied groups in the stage before the experiment (P>0.05). Considering that the design of this research is a pre-test-post-test with a control group and the purpose of the pre-test is to control the primary statistical difference, analysis of covariance with Benferroni's post-hoc test was used to investigate the difference in the amount of mobile phobia after the implementation of the experimental variables. The difference between the movie watching group and the text reading, counseling and control groups was 1.21, 45.76 and 57.67, respectively. The difference between the text study group and the counseling and control groups was 46.98 and 58.89, respectively. The difference between the group of counseling sessions and the control was 11.91. Based on the results of Benferroni's post-hoc test, there was a significant difference between the three experimental groups and the control group. There was no significant difference between the two experimental groups of watching the movie and reading the texts. There was a significant difference between the two experimental groups of watching movies and reading texts with the group of counseling sessions. Based on these results, it can be said that all three educational methods of watching movies, reading texts and counseling sessions have been effective in reducing mobile phone phobia. The effect of watching movies and reading texts in reducing mobile phone phobia has been the same but more than the method of counseling sessions. It should be noted that the results of this research are not generalizable due to the way it was conducted and we may face different results in different societies.

The results of covariance analysis showed that information therapy was effective in reducing students' nomophobia and this effect was seen more in the experimental group of reading texts and watching movies; according to the findings of this research, it should be said that the difference between the group of watching the movie and the group of reading the texts, counseling sessions with the control group was 0.30, 1.90 and 1.50, respectively. The difference between the text study group and the counseling and control groups was 2.20 and 1.80, respectively. The difference between the group of counseling sessions and the control was 0.40; therefore, it can be concluded that information therapy is effective in reducing students' nomophobia. In fact, it can be said that providing the right information at the right time helps a person's decision-making in the process of changing behavior and it is a process that is achieved through the dynamic interaction of the patient with the text. Information therapy is seen as a method to increase the relationship between the doctor and the patient and sometimes people find the information they need from the Internet.

Information therapy is one of the new methods of providing health-related information to patients. This method plays an important role in empowering patients to make informed health decisions and participate in the recovery process. In this regard, the present study was conducted to explain the understanding of elderly people with type 2 diabetes regarding information therapy related to self-care.

This study was carried out qualitatively using the content analysis method on 18 patients with type 2 diabetes referred to some specialized diabetes centers in Hamadan City in 2024. Participants were selected based on purposeful sampling method and content saturation with maximum diversity based on gender, education level, marital status, employment status, and duration of diabetes among patients eligible for the study. A semi-structured, in-depth personal interview method was used for data collection. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed using MAXQDA 2020 software.

After data analysis, three categories and thirteen subcategories were extracted in relation to the theme of diabetes control and management. The obtained categories included promoting self-care behaviors, increasing individuals' motivation to perform self-care behaviors, and accessing information therapy communication channels. Subcategories included paying attention to physical, psychological, social, and spiritual self-care; boosting awareness; improving attitude; controlling disease and its complications; reducing costs and making better decisions; and interpersonal media, traditional media, digital media, and social networks.

According to the results, it seems that information therapy is one of the methods of increasing individuals' motivation to perform self-care behaviors and promoting self-care behaviors. Ultimately, it may assist elderly patients in controlling and managing type 2 diabetes.

This study analyzed the information therapy behavior of immunologists in the country, based on the Cohennon self-organized neural network model.

Applied research has been done by descriptive survey method using neural network technique. The tool is a researcher made-questionnaire that was distributed among 149 people. Using MATLAB software, specialists based on the main components of clustering research, and then by removing each of the main sub-components,, the most effective and least effective option was determined.

Analysis showed in information retrieval skills; 63.75% of the population are in the first cluster with an average of 29.88 and in the second cluster 36.24% with an average score of 30.22, and the most important component is the use of keywords and terms related to the required information. About ways to get information; 22.14% of the population with an average score of 54.36 in the first cluster, 18.12% of individuals with an average of 48.11 in the second cluster, 14.09% with an average of 43.28 in the third cluster, 16.1% with an average of 0.04 49 were in the fourth cluster and 29.53% of the people with an average score of 53.72 were in the fifth cluster, and the most important way to find information was to use electronic information sources. Based on the use of various information services, 46% of people with an average score of 54.85 in the first cluster, 20.66% with an average of 49.38 in the second cluster and 32.66% with an average of 43.08 in the third cluster and the most important component of information therapy services has been familiarity with various sources and information services in the specialized field.

Neural clustering of information therapy behaviors of the study population and the resulting information transactions, in addition to resulting in awareness of the needs and information resources required by users, as an accessible and low-cost method that improves the quality of information of immunodeficiency specialists leads to the provision of more effective medical services to patients, provides the necessary basis for anticipating information-oriented arrangements and decisions to meet the needs and information carriers requested by users of medical databases and provides managers and staff This field, and as an effective strategy with the highest level of possible standards, leads to the discovery of the intangible pattern of information seeking behaviors of health users, and teaches the audience to use information media intelligently.

To identify the effective dimensions and components in the establishment of an evidence-based information therapy approach in the face of the infodemic crisis in the health and medical centers of the country using the meta-analysis method.

Methods and Materials: 

In this research, in terms of practical purpose, qualitative research method and meta-analysis technique was used to collect data and combine qualitative findings, 35 sources were used as the basis of this study.

By analyzing articles and experts’ opinions, two main dimensions and 12 sub-dimensions, including: a) information: including 6 sub-dimensions; Acquiring information, identifying information, sharing information, increasing awareness, meeting information needs, increasing health knowledge; and b) treatment: including 6 dimensions; Patient satisfaction, caring behavior, reducing the cost of inpatient treatment, use of health information, health maintenance education, and disease prevention were obtained.

Non-scientific media are usually exaggerated and dangerous for those who trust them. This issue reveals the need for authentication and authenticity of health information published in the media. In this regard, the establishment of the information therapy approach, as a means of facilitating timely access to health information and its dissemination for both the doctor and patient spectrum, is the new perspective of medical information under the title of information therapy.